Influence of slab thickness on the Casimir force

TL;DR

This paper investigates how the thickness of silicon and VO2 slabs affects the Casimir force, comparing models and materials to guide experimental testing of theoretical descriptions.

Contribution

It provides a detailed analysis of the impact of finite slab thickness on the Casimir force for silicon and VO2, including model comparisons and experimental implications.

Findings

Finite thickness significantly influences the Casimir force.

Differences between Drude and plasma models affect force predictions.

VO2's metal-insulator transition impacts Casimir force measurements.

Abstract

We calculate the Casimir force between slabs of finite thickness made of intrinsic and doped silicon with different concentration of carriers and compare the results to those obtained for gold slabs. We use the Drude and the plasma models to describe the dielectric function for the carriers in doped Si. We discuss the possibility of experimentally testing the appropriateness of these models. We also investigate the influence of finite thickness on $VO_2$, which has recently been proposed for Casimir effect measurements testing the metal-insulator transition.